Antibodies Binding Human Collagen II

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to antibodies against human collagen II, polypeptides and polynucleotides encoding human collagen II antibodies or fragments thereof, and methods of making and using the foregoing.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/386,796, filed 27 Sep. 2010, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to antibodies against human collagen II, polypeptides and polynucleotides encoding human collagen II antibodies or fragments thereof, and methods of making and using the foregoing.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Diseases and conditions that cause the destruction of cartilage within the joints pose a significant public health concern, particularly in view of the demographics of an aging population. Multiple mechanisms are involved in the degradation of articular cartilage in arthritides such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and osteoarthritis (OA). RA is the most common form of inflammatory arthritis, affecting 3% of women and 1% of men. OA, a non-inflammatory arthritis, is the most common form of joint disease, and is second only to cardiovascular disease as a cause of early retirement and disability.

Most treatments for joint ailments are generally systemic. Targeting a medication locally to a joint would have several advantages: increased efficacy, reduced side effects, an improved dosing schedule, and reduced cost of goods.

Current local treatments including glucocorticoids, injectable hyaluronic acid solutions, NSAIDs or other small molecules have relatively short half lives as well as systemic distribution once injected into the joint (Gerwin, et al., Adv Drug Deliv Rev, 58:226-42, 2006; Lindenhayn et al., Eur J Clin Chem Biochem, 35:355-63, 1997). Joint retention of a therapeutic can be achived by coupling the therapeutic to a joint targeting agent (Rothenfluh et al., Nature Materials 7:248-54, 2008; WO05/097073; U.S. Pat. No. 7,067,144). However, treatments may require intra-articular injection with delivery vehicles such as liposomes, adding a layer of complexity and possible abrasion of the articulating surface.

Thus, there is a need to develop additional vehicles for efficient delivery and subsequent retention of a therapeutic in the joint.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1. Human scaffolds for the generation of de novo pIX libraries. Residue numbering according to Chothia. CDR sequences are underlined.

FIG. 2. Sequences of the heavy chain variable regions (VH) and light chain variable regions (VL) of Fabs binding human collagen II. Residues differing from the wild type human scaffold are indicated. X denotes a deleted residue in the sequence when compared to the wild type.

FIG. 3. Cross-reactivity of Fabs against human and rat collagens I and II.

FIG. 4. Binding of anti-collagen II Fabs to human cartilage.

FIG. 5. Retention of anti-collagen II Fabs in osteoarthritic joints. *P<0.05, **P<0.01; comparison to control CNTO 4234. The counts at 10 min and 1 hour post injection for CNTO 3631 were too high to read.

FIG. 6. Retention of anti-collagen II Fabs in osteoarthritic synovial fluid. *P<0.05; **P<0.01; comparison to control CNTO 4234.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

One aspect of the invention is an isolated monoclonal antibody or fragment thereof that binds human collagen II, comprising a heavy chain variable region (VH region) and a light chain variable region (VL region), wherein the VH region comprises the heavy chain complementarity determining region (CDR) 1, 2 and 3 (HCDR1, HCDR2, and HCDR3) sequences as shown in

-   -   i. SEQ ID NO:s 8, 14, and 20;     -   ii. SEQ ID NO:s 9, 15, and 21;     -   iii. SEQ ID NO:s 9, 15, and 22;     -   iv. SEQ ID NO:s 9, 15, and 23;     -   v. SEQ ID NO:s 9, 15, and 24;     -   vi. SEQ ID NO:s 9, 15, and 25;     -   vii. SEQ ID NO:s 9, 15, and 26;     -   viii. SEQ ID NO:s 9, 15, and 27;     -   ix. SEQ ID NO:s 9, 15, and 28;     -   x. SEQ ID NO:s 10, 16, and 29;     -   xi. SEQ ID NO:s 11, 17, and 30;     -   xii. SEQ ID NO:s 12, 18, and 31; or     -   xiii. SEQ ID NO:s 13, 19, and 32; and     -   the VL regon comprises the light chain CDR 1, 2 and 3 (LCDR1,         LCDR2, and LCDR3) sequences as shown in     -   xiv. SEQ ID NO:s 33, 42, and 46;     -   xv. SEQ ID NO:s 34, 42, and 47;     -   xvi. SEQ ID NO:s 35, 43, and 48;     -   xvii. SEQ ID NO:s 36, 44, and 49;     -   xviii. SEQ ID NO:s 37, 42, and 50;     -   xix. SEQ ID NO:s 38, 42, and 51;     -   xx. SEQ ID NO:s 35, 44, and 52;     -   xxi. SEQ ID NO:s 39, 42, and 53;     -   xxii. SEQ ID NO:s 40, 45, and 54; or     -   xxiii. SEQ ID NO:s 41, 42, and 55.

Another aspect of the invention is an isolated monoclonal antibody or fragment thereof that bind human collagen II, comprising a VH region and a VL region, wherein the VH region comprises an amino acid sequence having a sequence shown in SEQ ID NO:s 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, or 68, and the VL region comprises an amino acid sequence having a sequence shown in SEQ ID NO:s 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 5, or 7.

Another aspect of the invention is an isolated antibody that binds human collagen II, comprising a VH region and a VL region, wherein the VH region comprises the HCDR1, HCDR2, and HCDR3 sequences as shown in SEQ ID NO:s 9, 15, and 28, and the VL regon comprises the LCDR1, LCDR2, and LCDR3 sequences as shown in SEQ ID NO:s 39, 42, and 53.

Another aspect of the invention is an isolated monoclonal antibody or fragment thereof that binds human collagen II, comprising a VH region and a VL region, wherein the VH region comprises the HCDR1, HCDR2, and HCDR3 sequences as shown in SEQ ID NO:s 11, 17, and 30, and the VL regon comprises the LCDR1, LCDR2, and LCDR3 sequences as shown in SEQ ID NO:s 34, 42, and 47.

Another aspect of the invention is an isolated antibody heavy chain variable region comprising the amino acid sequence shown in SEQ ID NO:s 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, or 68.

Another aspect of the invention is a isolated antibody light chain variable region comprising the amino acid sequence shown in SEQ ID NO:s 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, or 76.

Another aspect of the invention is isolated polynucleotides encoding antibody heavy chain variable regions and antibody light chain variable regions of the invention.

Another aspect of the invention is a vector comprising at least one polynucleotide of the invention.

Another aspect of the invention is a host cell comprising the vector of the invention.

Another aspect of the invention is a method of making an antibody that binds human collagen II, comprising culturing the host cell of the invention and recovering the antibody produced by the host cell.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

All publications, including but not limited to patents and patent applications, cited in this specification are herein incorporated by reference as though fully set forth.

Unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which an invention belongs. Although any compositions and methods similar or equivalent to those described herein can be used in the practice or testing of the invention, exemplary compositions and methods are described herein.

The term “antibody” includes whole antibodies and any fragments thereof. Antibody fragments comprise at least a portion of an immunoglobulin molecule, such as a complementarity determining region (CDR), a variable region, a constant region, or a framework region from either antibody heavy or light chain. An antibody may be a Fab, F(ab′), F(ab′)₂, scFv, dsFv, or diabody. An antibody may be a monoclonal antibody (mAb), chimeric, humanized, or human antibody, dimeric, tetrameric or multimeric. Structures of the above mentioned antibody fragments, and techniques for the preparation and use of the antibodies and fragments thereof are well known in the art (Ausubel, et al., ed., Current Protocols in Molecular Biology, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., NY 1987-2001; Sambrook, et al., Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual, 2^(nd) Edition, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., 1989; Harlow and Lane, Antibodies, a Laboratory Manual, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., 1989; Colligan, et al., ed., Current Protocols in Immunology, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., NY 1994-2001; Colligan et al., Current Protocols in Protein Science, John Wiley & Sons, NY, N.Y., 1997-2001; Kohler et al., Nature, 256:495-497, 1975; Queen et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci, 86:10029-33, 1989; U.S. Pat. No. 4,816,567). For example, murine mAbs can be made by the hybridoma method of Kohler et al., Nature 256:495-497, 1975. Chimeric mAbs can be prepared by the method disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,816,567. Human-adapted mAbs having CDRs derived from a non-human donor immunoglobulin (typically murine) and the remaining immunoglobulin-derived parts of the molecule being derived from one or more human immunoglobulins can be prepared by techniques known to those skilled in the art such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,225,539. Human framework sequences useful for human-adaptation can be selected from relevant databases by those skilled in the art. Optionally, human-adapted mAbs can be further modified by incorporating altered framework support residues to preserve binding affinity by techniques such as those disclosed in Queen et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (USA), 86:10029-10032, 1989 and Hodgson et al., Bio/Technology, 9:421, 1991.

Fully human mAbs lacking any non-human sequences can be prepared from human immunoglobulin transgenic mice by techniques referenced in, e.g., Lonberg et al., Nature 368:856-859, 1994; Fishwild et al., Nature Biotechnology 14:845-851, 1996; and Mendez et al., Nature Genetics 15:146-156, 1997. Human mAbs can also be prepared and optimized from phage display libraries by techniques referenced in, e.g., Knappik et al., J. Mol. Biol. 296:57-86, 2000; and Krebs et al., J. Immunol. Meth. 254:67-84 2001). Fragments of antibodies e.g., Fab, F(ab′)2, Fd, and dAb fragments may be produced by cleavage of the antibodies or by recombinant engineering. For example, Fab and F(ab′)2 fragments may be generated by treating the antibodies with an enzyme such as pepsin.

Immunoglobulins can be assigned to five major classes, namely IgA, IgD, IgE, IgG and IgM, depending on the heavy chain constant domain amino acid sequence. IgA and IgG are further sub-classified as the isotypes IgA₁, IgA₂, IgG₁, IgG₂, IgG₃ and IgG₄.

An antibody variable region consists of a “framework” region interrupted by three “antigen-binding sites”. The antigen-binding sites are defined using various terms: (i) Complementarity Determining Regions (CDRs), three in the VH (HCDR1, HCDR2, HCDR3), and three in the VL (LCDR1, LCDR2, LCDR3), are based on sequence variability (Wu and Kabat, J. Exp. Med. 132:211-250, 1970; Kabat et al., Sequences of Proteins of Immunological Interest, 5th Ed. Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md., 1991). (ii) “Hypervariable regions”, “HVR”, or “HV”, three in the VH (H1, H2, H3) and three in the VL (L1, L2, L3), refer to the regions of an antibody variable domains which are hypervariable in structure as defined by Chothia and Lesk (Chothia and Lesk, Mol. Biol. 196:901-917, 1987). Other terms include “IMGT-CDRs” (Lefranc et al., Dev. Comparat. Immunol. 27:55-77, 2003) and “Specificity Determining Residue Usage” (SDRU) (Almagro, Mol. Recognit. 17:132-143, 2004). The International ImMunoGeneTics (IMGT) database (http://www_imgt_org) provides a standardized numbering and definition of antigen-binding sites. The correspondence between CDRs, HVs and IMGT delineations is described in Lefranc et al., Dev. Comparat. Immunol. 27:55-77, 2003.

“Framework” or “framework sequences” are the remaining sequences of a variable region other than those defined to be antigen-binding site. The framework is typically divided into four regions, FR1, FR2, FR3, and FR3, which form a scaffold for the three antigen-binding sites in each variable reigon. Because the antigen-binding site can be defined by various terms as described above, the exact amino acid sequence of a framework depends on how the antigen-binding site was defined.

The term “antibody that binds human collagen II” as used herein refers to an antibody that binds human collagen II with an EC50 of 1 μg/ml or less in an ELISA assay using plates coated with 10 μg/mL of human collagen II according to the method described in Example 2.

The term “human collagen II” or huColII as used herein refers to human type II collagen isolated from cartilage. Human collagen II is synthesized as procollagen alpha Col2A1 chains (SEQ ID NO: 79). The procollagen molecule is secreted into the extracellular matrix where it forms fibrils. Fibril formation is accompanied by the removal of the C- and N-propeptides by specific proteinases. Processing of the fibrillar hucolII is well known.

The term “vector” means a polynucleotide capable of being duplicated within a biological system or that can be moved between such systems. Vector polynucleotides typically contain elements, such as origins of replication, polyadenylation signal or selection markers, that function to facilitate the duplication or maintenance of these polynucleotides in a biological system. Examples of such biological systems may include a cell, virus, animal, plant, and reconstituted biological systems utilizing biological components capable of duplicating a vector. The polynucleotide comprising a vector may be DNA or RNA molecules or a hybrid of these.

The term “expression vector” means a vector that can be utilized in a biological system or in a reconstituted biological system to direct the translation of a polypeptide encoded by a polynucleotide sequence present in the expression vector.

The term “polynucleotide” means a molecule comprising a chain of nucleotides covalently linked by a sugar-phosphate backbone or other equivalent covalent chemistry. Double and single-stranded DNAs and RNAs are typical examples of polynucleotides.

The term “polypeptide” or “protein” means a molecule that comprises at least two amino acid residues linked by a peptide bond to form a polypeptide. Small polypeptides of less than 50 amino acids may be referred to as “peptides”.

Conventional one and three-letter amino acid codes are used herein as follows:

Amino acid Three-letter code One-letter code Alanine ala A Arginine arg R Asparagine asn N Aspartate asp D Cysteine cys C Glutamate glu E Glutamine gln Q Glycine gly G Histidine his H Isoleucine ile I Leucine leu L Lysine lys K Methionine met M Phenylalanine phe F Proline pro P Serine ser S Threonine thr T Tryptophan trp W Tyrosine tyr Y Valine val V

Compositions of Matter

The present invention provides monoclonal antibodies that bind human collagen II. These antibodies are useful as research reagents, diagnostic reagents, and vehicles for delivering a therapeutic agent for example to a joint.

The invention provides novel antigen-binding sites and immunoglobulin chains derived from human immunoglobulin gene libraries.

One embodiment of the invention is an isolated monoclonal antibody or fragment thereof that binds human collagen II, comprising a heavy chain variable region (VH region) and a light chain variable region (VL region), wherein the VH region comprises the heavy chain complementarity determining region (CDR) 1, 2 and 3 (HCDR1, HCDR2, and HCDR3) sequences and the VL region comprises the light chain complementarity determining region (CDR) 1, 2 and 3 (LCDR1, LCDR2, and LCDR3) sequences as shown Table 1.

TABLE 1 SEQ ID NO: Fab ID VH ID VL ID HCDR1 HCDR2 HCDR3 LCDR1 LCDR2 LCDR3 VH VL Fab 169-76 VH169-76 VL169-76 8 14 20 33 42 46 56 69 Fab169-C2 VH169-C2 VLL6 9 15 21 34 42 47 57 5 Fab169-22 VH169-22 VL169-22 9 15 22 35 43 48 58 70 Fab169-34 VH169-34 VL169-34 9 15 23 36 44 49 59 71 Fab169-45 VH169-45 VL169-45 9 15 24 37 42 50 60 72 Fab169-G11 VH169-G11 VLL6 9 15 25 34 42 47 61 5 Fab169-64 VH169-64 VL169-64 9 15 26 38 42 51 62 73 Fab169-47 VH169-47 VL169-47 9 15 27 35 44 52 63 74 Fab169-31 VH169-31 VL169-31 9 15 28 39 42 53 64 75 Fab323-G9 VH323-G9 VLB3 10 16 29 40 45 54 65 7 Fab323-G1 VH323-G1 VLL6 11 17 30 34 42 47 66 5 Fab323-B3 VH323-B3 VLB3 12 18 31 40 45 54 67 7 Fab551-3 VH551-3 VL551-3 13 19 32 41 42 55 68 76

Antibodies having conservative substitutions in the heavy and light chain sequences shown in Table 1 (SEQ ID NO:s 8-76) are encompassed within the scope of the invention. The conservative substitution may reside in the framework regions, or in antigen-binding sites, as long they do not adversely affect the properties of the antibody. Substitutions may be made to improve antibody properties, for example stability or affinity. Conservative substitutions will produce molecules having functional and chemical characteristics similar to those molecules into which such modifications are made. Exemplary amino acid substitutions are shown in Table 2. Furthermore, any native residue in the polypeptide may also be substituted with alanine, as has been previously described for alanine scanning mutagenesis (MacLennan et al., Acta Physiol. Scand. Suppl. 643:55-67, 1998; Sasaki et al., Adv. Biophys. 35:1-24, 1998). Amino acid substitutions can be done for example by PCR mutagenesis (U.S. Pat. No. 4,683,195). Libraries of variants can be generated using well known methods, for example using random (NNK) or non-random codons, for example DVK codons, which encode 11 amino acids (ACDEGKNRSYW). The resulting variants can be characterized for their binding to human collagen II as described in Examples, or for other properties such as stability using well known methods.

TABLE 2 Original residue Exemplary substitutions Ala (A) Val, Leu, Ile Arg (R) Lys, Gln, Asn Asn (N) Gln Asp (D) Glu Cys (C) Ser, Ala Gln (Q) Asn Gly (G) Pro, Ala His (H) Asn, Gln, Lys, Arg Ile (I) Leu, Val, Met, Ala, Phe Leu (L) Ile, Val, Met, Ala, Phe Lys (K) Arg, Gln, Asn Met (M) Leu, Phe, Ile Phe (F) Leu, Val, Ile, Ala, Tyr Pro (P) Ala Ser (S) Thr, Ala, Cys Thr (T) Ser Trp (W) Tyr, Phe Tyr (Y) Trp, Phe, Thr, Ser Val (V) Ile, Met, Leu, Phe, Ala

In other embodiments, the invention provides an isolated monoclonal antibody or fragment thereof that bind human collagen II, comprising a VH region and a VL region, wherein the VH region comprises an amino acid sequence having a sequence shown in SEQ ID NO:s 56, 57, 58, 59,6 0, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, or 68, and the VL region comprises an amino acid sequence having a sequence shown in SEQ ID NO:s 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 5, or 7.

Although the embodiments illustrated in the Examples comprise pairs of variable regions, one from a heavy and one from a light chain, a skilled artisan will recognize that alternative embodiments may comprise single heavy or light chain variable regions. The single variable region can be used to screen for a second variable region capable of forming a two-domain specific antigen-binding fragment capable of, for example, binding to human collagen II. The screening may be accomplished by phage display screening methods using for example hierarchical dual combinatorial approach disclosed in Intl. Publ. No. WO92/01047. In this approach, an individual colony containing either a H or L chain clone is used to infect a complete library of clones encoding the other chain (L or H), and the resulting two-chain specific antigen-binding domain is selected in accordance with phage display techniques as described.

In another aspect, the invention provides isolated antibody heavy chains and light chains comprising the amino acid sequences shown in SEQ ID NO:s 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, or 68 for heavy chains and SEQ ID NO:s 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, and 79 for light chains.

Another aspect of the invention is isolated polynucleotides encoding any of the antibodies of the invention or their complement. Certain exemplary polynucleotides are disclosed herein, however, other polynucleotides which, given the degeneracy of the genetic code or codon preferences in a given expression system, encode the antibodies of the invention are also within the scope of the invention. Polynucleotides encoding antibodies of the invention are prepared by well known methods. These methods include, but are not limited to, isolation from a natural source (in the case of naturally occurring amino acid sequence variants) or preparation by oligonucleotide-mediated (or site-directed) mutagenesis, PCR mutagenesis, and chemical gene synthesis.

Exemplary antibodies of the invention may be of the IgG, IgD, IgE, IgA or IgM isotypes. Additionally, the antibodies of the invention can be post-translationally modified by processes such as glycosylation, isomerization, deglycosylation or non-naturally occurring covalent modification such as the addition of polyethylene glycol (PEG) moieties (pegylation) and lipidation. Such modifications may occur in vivo or in vitro. For example, the antibodies of the invention can be conjugated to polyethylene glycol (PEGylated) to improve their pharmacokinetic profiles. Conjugation can be carried out by techniques known to those skilled in the art. Conjugation of therapeutic antibodies with PEG has been shown to enhance pharmacodynamics while not interfering with function. (Deckert et al., Int. J. Cancer 87:382-390, 2000; Knight et al., Platelets 15:409-418, 2004; Leong et al., Cytokine 16:106-119, 2001; Yang et al., Protein Eng. 16:761-770, 2003).

Pharmacokinetic properties of the antibodies of the invention can be enhanced through Fc modifications by techniques known to those skilled in the art. The “Fc” of an antibody is not involved directly in binding of an antibody to an antigen, but exhibits various effector functions. An antibody “Fc” is a term well known and is defined on the basis of papain cleavage of antibodies. The Fc of an antibody is directly involved in ADCC (antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity) and CDC (complement-dependent cytotoxicity) based on complement activation, Clq binding and Fc receptor binding. Complement activation (CDC) is initiated by binding of complement factor Clq to the Fc of most IgG antibody subclasses. While the influence of an antibody on the complement system is dependent on certain conditions, binding to Clq is caused by defined binding sites in the Fc. Such binding sites are known in the state of the art and described by, e.g., Boakle et al., Nature 282: 742-43, 1979; Lukas et al., J. Immunol. 127: 2555-60, 1981; Brunhouse and Cebra, Mol. Immunol. 16: 907-17, 1979; Burton et al., Nature 288:338-44, 1980; Thommesen et al., Mol. Immunol. 37: 995-1004, 2000; Idusogie et al., J. Immunol. 164:4178-84, 2000; Hezareh et al., J. Virology 75:12161-68, 2001; Morgan et al., Immunology 86:319-24, 1995; EP 0307434. Such binding sites are, e.g., L234, L235, D270, N297, E318, K320, K322, P331, and P329 (numbering according to EU index of Kabat). Antibodies of subclass IgG1, IgG2 and IgG3 usually show complement activation and Clq binding, whereas IgG4 does not activate the complement system and does not bind Clq.

The antibodies of the invention are characterized in that the constant chains are of human origin. Such constant chains are well known and described, e.g., by Kabat (see e.g. Johnson and Wu, Nuc Acids Res. 28, 214-18, 2000). For example, a useful human heavy chain constant region comprises SEQ ID NO: 77. For example, a useful human light chain constant region comprises an amino acid sequence of a kappa-light chain constant region of SEQ ID NO: 78.

The antibodies of the invention may bind human collagen II with a K_(d) less than or equal to about 10⁻⁶, 10⁻⁷, 10⁻⁸, 10⁻⁹, 10⁻¹⁰, 10⁻¹¹ or 10⁻¹² M. The affinity of an antibody to human collagen II can be determined experimentally using any suitable method. Such methods may utilize Biacore or KinExA instrumentation, ELISA or competitive binding assays known to those skilled in the art.

Another embodiment of the invention is a vector comprising at least one polynucleotide of the invention. The heavy and light chain variable domains of the invention are combined with sequences of promoter, translation initiation, constant region, 3′ untranslated region, polyadenylation, and transcription termination to form expression vector constructs. The heavy and light chain expression constructs can be combined into a single vector, co-transfected, serially transfected, or separately transfected into host cells which are then fused to form a single host cell expressing both chains.

Another embodiment of the invention is a host cell comprising a vector of the invention. Such host cells may be eukaryotic cells, bacterial cells, plant cells or archeal cells. Exemplary eukaryotic cells may be of mammalian, insect, avian or other animal origins. Mammalian eukaryotic cells include immortalized cell lines such as hybridomas or myeloma cell lines such as SP2/0 (American Type Culture Collection (ATCC), Manassas, Va., CRL-1581), NSO (European Collection of Cell Cultures (ECACC), Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK, ECACC No. 85110503), FO (ATCC CRL-1646) and Ag653 (ATCC CRL-1580) murine cell lines. An exemplary human myeloma cell line is U266 (ATTC CRL-TIB-196). Other useful cell lines include those derived from Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells such as CHO-K1SV (Lonza Biologics, Walkersville, Md.), CHO-K1 (ATCC CRL-61) or DG44.

Another embodiment of the invention is a method of making an antibody binding human collagen II comprising culturing a host cell of the invention and recovering the antibody produced by the host cell. Methods of making antibodies and purifying them are well known in the art.

Uses of the Invention

The antibodies of the invention are useful as research agents, and as delivery agents of therapeutic molecules to sites expressing human collagen II, such as a joint.

Arthritis, including osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, arthritic joints as a result of injury, and the like, are common inflammatory conditions which would benefit from the local delivery and joint retention of anti-inflammatory proteins and therapeutic molecules.

Therapeutic molecules may be coupled to the antibodies of the invention for improved joint retention. Therapeutic molecules may be proteins or chemical compounds. Exemplary therapeutic molecules are growth factors, cytokines and anti-inflammatory agents, proteins that induce growth and repair of collagen, as well as small molecules inhibiting proteolytic destriuction of joint tissue. Therapeutic proteins may be coupled to the anti-collagen antibodies of the invention or fragments thereof by generating fusion proteins using well known recombinant methods. For example, the N-terminus of the therapeutic protein may be directly linked to the C-terminus of an antibody of the invention via an amide bond or a peptide linker. Exemplary fusion constructs are described in e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 5,116,964, U.S. Pat. No. 5,709,859, Intl. Publ. Nos. WO04/002417 and WO05/081687. Therapeutic molecules may also be coupled to the antibodies of the invention using chemical crosslinking well known in the art, for example using hydrazone or semicarbazone linkage.

The antibodies of the invention with optionally coupled therapeutic molecule may be prepared as pharmaceutical compositions containing an effective amount of the therapeutic molecule as an active ingredient in a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier. The term “carrier” refers to a diluent, adjuvant, excipient, or vehicle with which the active compound is administered. Such pharmaceutical vehicles can be liquids, such as water and oils, including those of petroleum, animal, vegetable or synthetic origin, such as peanut oil, soybean oil, mineral oil, sesame oil and the like. For example, 0.4% saline and 0.3% glycine can be used. These solutions are sterile and generally free of particulate matter. They may be sterilized by conventional, well-known sterilization techniques (e.g., filtration). The compositions may contain pharmaceutically acceptable auxiliary substances as required to approximate physiological conditions such as pH adjusting and buffering agents, stabilizing, thickening, lubricating and coloring agents, etc. The concentration of the agent of the invention in such pharmaceutical formulation can vary widely, i.e., from less than about 0.5%, usually at or at least about 1% to as much as 15 or 20% by weight and will be selected primarily based on required dose, fluid volumes, viscosities, etc., according to the particular mode of administration selected. Methods for preparing parenterally administrable compositions are well known and are described in more detail in, for example, “Remington's Pharmaceutical Science”, 15th ed., Mack Publishing Company, Easton, Pa.

The antibodies of the invention can be lyophilized for storage and reconstituted in a suitable carrier prior to use. This technique has been shown to be effective with conventional immunoglobulins and protein preparations and art-known lyophilization and reconstitution techniques can be employed.

The present invention will now be described with reference to the following specific, non-limiting examples.

EXAMPLE 1 Identification of Collagen II Binding mAbs

Human collagen II-binding Fabs were selected from de novo pIX phage display libraries (Shi et al., J. Mol. Biol. 397:385-396, 2010; WO2009085462A1; U.S. Pat. Appl. No. US20100021477). The libraries were generated by diversifying human germline VH genes IGHV1-69*01, IGHV3-23*01, and IGHV5-51*01, and human germline VLkappa genes 012 (IGKV1-39*01), L6 (IGKV3-11*01), A27 (IGKV3-20*01), and B3 (IGKV4-1*01). To assemble complete VH and VL domains, the IGHV genes were recombined with the human IGHJ-4 minigene via the H3 loop, and the IGKV genes were recombined with the IGKJ-1 minigene. The positions in the heavy and light chain variable regions around H1, H2, L1, L2 and L3 loops corresponding to positions identified to be frequently in contact with protein and peptide antigens were chosen for diversification. Sequence diversity at selected positions was limited to residues occurring at each position in the IGHV or IGLV germline gene families of the respective IGHV or IGLV genes. Diversity at the H3 loop was generated by utilizing short to mid-sized synthetic loops of lengths 7-14 amino acids. The amino acid distribution at H3 was designed to mimic the observed variation of amino acids in human antibodies. Library design is detailed in Shi et al., J. Mol. Biol. 397:385-396, 2010. Diversity in the generated libraries for VH H1 and H2 is shown in Table 4, for H3 in Table 4, and for VL L1, L2 and L3 in Table 5. The scaffolds utilized to generate libraries were named according to their human VH and VL germline gene origin. Sequences of the constructed VH and VL scaffolds used for diversification are shown in SEQ ID NO:s 1-7. (3-23: SEQ ID NO: 1; 1-69: SEQ ID NO: 2; 5-51: SEQ ID NO: 3; 012: SEQ ID NO: 4; L6: SEQ ID NO: 5; L27: SEQ ID NO: 6; B3: SEQ ID NO: 7) (FIG. 1). The three heavy chain libraries were combined with the four germline light chains or germline light chain libraries to generate 24 unique VH:VL combinations for screening.

TABLE 3 Scaffold Loop Position* 3-23 1-69 5-51 H1 31 SDNT S SNT 32 Y Y Y 33 AGW AG W 34 M I I 35 SH S SG H2 50 VANG GW IR 51 I I I 52 SNKW IS YD 52a YSGQ PA P 53 SD IY GS 54 G FN D 55 SG G S 56 S T DY *Residue numbering according to Kabat The libraries were panned using purified human collagen II (Chondrex, #2015, treated with 3M guanidine, DEAE-cellulose and Na₂HPO, 0.5 mg/mL solution in 0.05M acetic acid) coated on a Maxisorp plate (Nunc) at 10 μg/mL in 1× collagen dilution buffer (Chondrex). The libraries were blocked for one hour at room temperature with 3% milk in TBST. 100 μl of each library was combined by heavy chain to generate the 6 HV:HL library pairs, and applied to pre-blocked (1 hour in 3% milk in TBST) human collagen II coated plates. After 1 h incubation, the wells were washed in TBST and in PBS five times in each. 200 μL of MC1061 F′cells (OD₆₀₀ ˜1.0) were added onto the wells for 30 minutes at 37° C., after which the infected cells were plated on 2xYT (Carb/Glu) plates and

TABLE 4 H3 length Codon Configuration² 7 A, (NNS) × 3, F/L, D, Y 8 A, (NNS) × 4, F/L, D, Y 9 A, B × 5, F/L, D, Y 10 A, B × 6, F/L, D, Y 11 A, B × 6, (B + BY) × 1, F/L, D, Y 12 A, B × 4, (B + BY) × 4, F/L, D, Y 13 A, B × 6, (B + BY) × 3, F/L, D, Y 14 A, B × 6, (B + BY) × 4, F/L, D, Y Numbering according to Kabat and co-workers. ²Codon base compositions [A-C-G-T] A: position 1 = [15-15-68-2] position 2 = [43-11-33-13] position 3 = [2-29-24-45] B: position 1 = [19-14-41-26] position 2 = [28-25-33-14] position 3 = [0-34-36-30] B + BY: Mixed primer set at this position. BY contains a tyrosine codon (TAT) sequentially replacing the B codon in these positions and is mixed at a ratio of 1:7 with a primer containing the B codon. Therefore, for CDR length 11 with one (B + BY) codon, two primers were used. One had the TAT codon at this position and the second had the B codon and these were mixed at a ratio of 1:7. For CDR length 13, the three (B + BY) codons required 4 primers, one with the B codon and three with the TAT codon in each of three positions and the B codon in the remaining 2 positions. In this case, the TAT primers were mixed at a ratio of 1:1:1:7 with the full B codon primer. Similarly, CDR-12 and CDR-14 were prepared with 5 primers. placed at 37° C. overnight. The colonies that had grown overnight were scraped off the plates in 2 mL per plate of 2xYT (Carb/Glu/20% glycerol). 50 ml of re-suspended bacteria was used to inoculate a 20 mL culture in 2xYT (Carb) and the remainder of the bacteria were frozen. The cultures were grown at 37 ° C. to an OD₆₀₀ 0.5-1.0, after which 1 mL of helper phage VCSM13 (Stratagene, Cat. No. 200251) was added to the culture at a multiplicity of infection of approximately 10:1 and incubation was carried out for 30 minutes at 37° C. without shaking. Kanamycin and IPTG were added the the culture and it was grown at 30° C. overnight. Phage was precipitated with 2% PEG/0.25M NaCl and re-suspended in 1 ml of PBS. One fifth of the PEG-precipitated phage was used to initiate the next round of panning and the remaining phage were stored at −20° C. The selection cycle was repeated four times. After the last selection cycle, the colonies were scraped off in 2 mL 2xYT Carb/Glu/20% glycerol and 100 μL of the cell suspension was used to isolate plasmid DNA. The pIX was excised by NheI/SpeI digestion and self-ligation of the isolated DNA. After ligation, the DNA was electroporated into electrocompetent MC1061 F′ cells and plated for single colonies on 2xYT Carb/Glu.

TABLE 5 Scaffold Loop Position* O12 L6 A27 B3 L1 30 SRNAD SRNAD SRNTD L 30a — — SNR YSHFA 30e — — — KTNE 31 SNKDG NSKD SNRADH K 32 YHNDWFSA YWDFHSAN YFHQSEK YFHNWDAS L2 50 FYTNKADG ADKGYFTN ADGS WSRDYA L3 91 SAYHPD RYSGF YSHA YSHA 92 FIYHNDKGR RHNSL YNDSHIFKG YNDSHIFKG 93 STHNDRG NDKR SNTDGHR SNTDGHR 94 TYLVFSRGP WA TYLVFAS TYLVFAS 96 LWRFYIN WYFLIR WYFLIR WYFLIR *Residue numbering according to Kabat

EXAMPLE 2 Cross-Reactivity of Col II mAbs with Other Collagens

The human collagen II binding Fabs obtained from the initial panning were screened for cross-reactivity with human collagens I, IV and V, and rat collagens I and II.

Preparation of Fab Lysates.

Colonies were picked from the pIX-excised transformations and grown in 2xYT Carb. The next day, 50 μL of the saturated cultures were used to inoculate an expression plate containing 400 μL per well of 2xYT Carb and the plate was grown at 37° C. for 6 hours. Fab expression was induced with the addition of 1 mM IPTG and the plate was placed at 30° C. overnight. The next day, the induced Fab cultures were spun at 2000 rpm for 10 minutes, and the cleared lysate was used in subsequent assays.

ELISA Maxisorp ELISA plates (Nunc) were coated with 10 μg/ml human collagen I (Chondrex), human collagen II (Chondrex), rat collagen I (Chondrex), rat collagen II (Chondrex) or with 5 μg/ml human collagen IV (Chemicon) or human collagen V (Chemicon), or with anti-Fd (the Binding Site) at 1 μg/ml, all in PBS, according to manufacturer's instructions. The wells were washed three times in TBST and blocked for one hour with 200 μL 3% milk in TBST. 100 μL of the Fab lysate was added onto the wells of the coated ELISA plates, and incubated 1 hour at room temperature. The wells were washed three times followed by addition of 100 μL of anti-kappa-HRP (Southern Biotech) at 1:5000 in PBS. The plates were incubated at room temperature for one hour, washed three times with TBST, and developed with BM Chemiluminescence ELISA Substrate (Roche Applied Science). The clones that bound to human and rat collagen II without binding to human collagen I, IV or V, or rat collagen I were sequenced and unique clones were further characterized. FIG. 3 shows the ELISA data for the 13 clones chosen for further characterization. The sequences of the Fabs are shown in FIG. 2 and Table 1.

EXAMPLE 3 Col II mAbs Bind to Human Cartilage Small-Scale Fab Purification

The Fab expression in Escherichia coli in 2xYT Carb (except that TurboBroth (Athena ES) was used for expression of Fab 551-3) was induced with 1 mM IPTG at 30° C. overnight. Induced bacteria were pelleted 30 min 4500 rpm, the cell pellets resuspended in lysis buffer (20 mM Tris, pH 8.5, 350 mM NaCl, 7.5 mM imidazole) with protease inhibitors, and ruptured with two passes through a microfluidizer. The cell lysate was clarified with two spins at 10,000 rpm for 10 minutes. Talon resin (Clontech) was equilibrated with lysis buffer and two mLs were added to the clarified lysate. Bound Fabs were eluted with two incubations of 5 minutes each using elution buffer (150 mM EDTA, 20 mM Tris, pH 8.5) and dialyzed in 20 mM Tris, pH 8.5. The dialyzed Fabs were further purified using a Q-sepharose Fast Flow resin (QFF resin; GE Healthcare), and used for experiments.

Cartilage-Binding Assay

Human cartilage was obtained from osteoarthritis patients (Northland Laboratories). The cartilage was first pulverized and stored as a suspension in PBS with protease inhibitors at 4° C. To test for cartilage binding, 2.5 μL of cartilage suspension per data point was added to 97.5 μL of TBST with 3% milk and the mixture rotated at room temperature for one hour. Binding of Fabs to the cartilage was tested using a MultiScreen HTS plate (Millipore) using the vacuum manifold. Briefly, 100 μL of the suspension was added into prewetted MultiScreen plate, and vacuum was applied to settle the cartilage onto the well filter, after which the wells were washed twice with TBST. 2.4 μg of each Fab in 100 μL of PBS was added to the wells and incubated at room temperature for 1 hour. The wells were washed three times with TBST, and anti-kappa-HRP (Southern Biotech) was added onto the wells. After one hour incubation, the wells were washed in PBST, the BM Chemiluminescence ELISA Substrate (Roche Applied Science) was added, and the resultant suspension of cartilage fragments was transferred to a black-well ELISA plate for luminescence detection. All 13 Fabs exhibited cartilage binding (FIG. 4).

EXAMPLE 4 mAb Affinities to Col II ELISA

EC50 values were obtained for select Fabs using ELISA assay as described above. In the assays, 100 microliters of each Fab was added in a concentration range between 10 ng/ml-10 μg/ml onto the wells. The EC50 values are shown in Table 6.

Biacore

Biacore binding kinetics was performed using standard methods against human and rat collagen II (Table 6b).

TABLE 6a Fab EC50 (ng/ml) 551-3 113.5 323-G1 123.1 169-31 113.1

TABLE 6b human collagen II rat collagen II K_(a) × K_(d) × K_(D) K_(a) × K_(d) × K_(D) Fab 10⁵ 10⁻³ (nmol) 10⁵ 10⁻³ (nmol) 323-G1 1.84 1.08 6 2.94 1.39 5 169-31 0.97 5 50 1.05 7.89 75 CNTO 4234 n.a. n.a. >1000 n.a. n.a. >1000

EXAMPLE 5 Anti-Collagen II mAbs are Retained in the Joints In Vivo

Two anti-collagen II Fabs (323-G1 (CNTO 3631) and 169-31 (CNTO 4093) and a control mAb (CNTO 4234) that did not bind to extracellular matrix components were iodinated and injected into the knees of menisectomized rats to evaluate the effect of mAb binding to collagen on joint residence time. Fabs were radiolabeled using Na¹²⁵I (Perkin Elmer) and Iodo-GEN tubes (Pierce). Free iodine was removed using PD-10 desalting columns (GE Healthcare) and the Fabs were concentrated to 2.2 mg/mL using Amicon Ultra centrifugal filter devices (Millipore; 10,000 MWCO). After iodination, the Fabs were tested for binding of collagen II, and no significant impairment due to iodination was observed.

32 male Sprague-Dawley rats underwent meniscus transection on the right and left hind limb. The rats were anesthetized with isoflurane anesthesia 2-4%, and the medial collateral ligament was transected and the meniscus cut to simulate a tear injury. Joint damage resembling osteoarthritis developed over the next three weeks. Twenty-one days after surgery, intra-articular injections of ¹²⁵I-labeled Fabs were performed. Animals received 11 μg of test article through 5 μl intra-articular injections into the right and left knee joint. Animals were euthanized at four time points (10 min, 1 hr, 6 hr and 24 hrs post-injection) and synovial fluid lavage and the knee joints were collected from bot knees. Radioactivity was measured from each sample. The counts per minute (cpm) were compared to the values of the non-injected dose of each respective Fab to calculate the % retention (e.g. as percent of injected dose). 323-G1 (CNTO 3631) and 169-31 (CNTO 4093) were retained both in the knee joint (FIG. 5) and synovial fluid (FIG. 6) longer than the control antibody. Approximately 60% and 32% of Fab 323-G1 and 60% and 18% of Fab 169-31 were retained in the knee (combined joint and synovial retention) after 6 and 24 hours post injection, respectively. The control Fab was retained at 17% and 5%. Thus, the antibodies of the invention exhibited increased joint retention due to their binding to a resident joint protein. 

1. An isolated monoclonal antibody or fragment thereof that binds human collagen II, comprising a heavy chain variable region (VH region) and a light chain variable region (VL region), wherein the VH region comprises the heavy chain complementarity determining region (CDR) 1, 2 and 3 (HCDR1, HCDR2, and HCDR3) sequences as shown in i. SEQ ID NO:s 8, 14, and 20; ii. SEQ ID NO:s 9, 15, and 21; iii. SEQ ID NO:s 9, 15, and 22; iv. SEQ ID NO:s 9, 15, and 23; v. SEQ ID NO:s 9, 15, and 24; vi. SEQ ID NO:s 9, 15, and 25; vii. SEQ ID NO:s 9, 15, and 26; viii. SEQ ID NO:s 9, 15, and 27; ix. SEQ ID NO:s 9, 15, and 28; x. SEQ ID NO:s 10, 16, and 29; xi. SEQ ID NO:s 11, 17, and 30; xii. SEQ ID NO:s 12, 18, and 31; or xiii. SEQ ID NO:s 13, 19, and 32; and the VL regon comprises the light chain CDR 1, 2 and 3 (LCDR1, LCDR2, and LCDR3) sequences as shown in xiv. SEQ ID NO:s 33, 42, and 46; xv. SEQ ID NO:s 34, 42, and 47; xvi. SEQ ID NO:s 35, 43, and 48; xvii. SEQ ID NO:s 36, 44, and 49; xviii. SEQ ID NO:s 37, 42, and 50; xix. SEQ ID NO:s 38, 42, and 51; xx. SEQ ID NO:s 35, 44, and 52; xxi. SEQ ID NO:s 39, 42, and 53; xxii. SEQ ID NO:s 40, 45, and 54; or xxiii. SEQ ID NO:s 41, 42, and
 55. 2. An isolated monoclonal antibody or fragment thereof that bind human collagen II, comprising a VH region and a VL region, wherein the VH region comprises an amino acid sequence having a sequence shown in SEQ ID NO:s 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, or 68, and the VL region comprises an amino acid sequence having a sequence shown in SEQ ID NO:s 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 5, or
 7. 3. An isolated antibody that binds human collagen II, comprising a VH region and a VL region, wherein the VH region comprises the HCDR1, HCDR2, and HCDR3 sequences as shown in SEQ ID NO:s 9, 15, and 28, and the VL regon comprises the LCDR1, LCDR2, and LCDR3 sequences as shown in SEQ ID NO:s 39, 42, and
 53. 4. An isolated monoclonal antibody or fragment thereof that binds human collagen II, comprising a VH region and a VL region, wherein the VH region comprises the HCDR1, HCDR2, and HCDR3 sequences as shown in SEQ ID NO:s 11, 17, and 30, and the VL regon comprises the LCDR1, LCDR2, and LCDR3 sequences as shown in SEQ ID NO:s 34, 42, and
 47. 5. The isolated antibody of claim 1, wherein the antibody comprises a Fab fragment.
 6. An isolated antibody heavy chain variable region comprising the amino acid sequence shown in SEQ ID NO:s 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, or
 68. 7. An isolated antibody light chain variable region comprising the amino acid sequence shown in SEQ ID NO:s 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, or
 76. 8. An isolated polynucleotide encoding an antibody heavy chain variable region of claim
 6. 9. An isolated polynucleotide encoding an antibody light chain variable region of claim
 7. 10. A vector comprising at least one polynucleotide of claim 8 or
 9. 11. A host cell comprising the vector of claim
 10. 12. A method of making an antibody that binds human collagen II, comprising culturing the host cell of claim 11 and recovering the antibody produced by the host cell. 